Government and Politics

The modern political history of Kuwait began in the early eighteenth
century when a number of families of the Bani Utub section of the
Anaizah tribe migrated from central Arabia, settling eventually in
Kuwait. Once in Kuwait, they established a self-governing political
unit. The date of 1756 is conventionally chosen as the year when the
settlers decided to select as their leader Sabah, an Al Sabah shaykh,
who was succeeded by his son Abd Allah, in turn succeeded by his son
Jabir. All subsequent rulers historically have come from the Al Sabah
line, chosen by family council, in consultation with the leading
merchant families who, along with the tribal elite, exercise some
restriction over the shaykhs' political autonomy.

The shaykh's primary task was to represent his community in foreign
policy, negotiating with Ottoman Turkey and with neighboring tribes. The
one major and unsuccessful challenge to this system of rule occurred in
the 1760s when the Al Khalifa family disagreed with the Al Sabah and in
consequence left Kuwait for Qatar, and then Bahrain, where the Al
Khalifa continue to rule. Despite the rift, the two settlements
maintained good relations, including close trade ties.

In the nineteenth century, members of the Al Sabah oversaw the
growing trade and pearling settlement in Kuwait. The rulers also
developed a cordial relationship with Britain, beginning with the first
contacts with the British East India Company in 1775. As members of a
small, vulnerable settlement, Kuwait's rulers attempted to maintain a
polite but distant relationship with all the local powers, notably the
British, the Wahhabis of Arabia, and the Ottomans. It was only under Abd
Allah Al Sabah II, who ruled from 1866 to 1892, that Kuwait began to
edge away from this policy of neutrality. Abd Allah developed close ties
with the Ottomans, even taking the Ottoman title, albeit largely as a
formality, of provincial governor (qaimaqam) in 1871. In
practical terms, Kuwait's domestic politics remained unchanged because
the Ottoman government did not interfere in the selection of rulers and
laws. In any event, this tilt was completely reversed when, following
the four-year rule of Muhammad Al Sabah, Mubarak the Great acceded to
the rule from 1896 to 1915.

Kuwait came into the British sphere of influence at the end of the
nineteenth century when Mubarak sought British support against Ottoman
forces. The Ottomans were backing allies of Mubarak's brothers, Kuwait's
previous rulers, whom Mubarak had killed on taking power in 1896. Uneasy
about Ottoman intentions, Mubarak reversed his predecessors' pro-Ottoman
policy and approached Britain, seeking a more formal alliance. Britain,
concerned with growing European interests and notably with an Ottoman
concession to Germany for construction of a Berlin-to- Baghdad
railroad--with a proposed spur line to Kuwait--agreed. Britain signed a
treaty with Kuwait in 1899 that promised Mubarak British support and, in
return, gave Britain control of Kuwait's foreign policy. This treaty
governed relations between the two states until Kuwait's independence in
1961. It granted Britain tremendous influence, most notably in foreign
and economic policy.

After Mubarak's death, Kuwait was ruled by two of his sons, Jabir Al
Sabah (1915-17) and Salim Al Sabah (1917-21). Thereafter, with one
exception, only descendants of Mubarak through these two sons would rule
Kuwait, thus forming a major cleavage within the ruling family. After
Salim's death in 1921, Kuwait was ruled for nearly three decades by
Ahmad al Jabir Al Sabah. Ahmad al Jabir's rule witnessed a serious
effort to constrain ruling family power. In 1938 a rebellion, known
locally as the Majlis Movement, developed. New issues arose. Kuwait was
in the midst of a serious recession as a result of the general decline
of the pearling industry, the Great Depression, and a trade dispute with
Saudi Arabia that prompted a Saudi embargo. Simultaneously, the recently
signed oil concession with KOC promised better times ahead if the
resulting income were not monopolized by the ruling family. To prevent
that from happening, the leading merchants began petitioning the ruler
for a series of reforms. In June the merchants took their protest a step
further, holding elections for a legislative assembly to implement the
desired reforms using these new revenues. The Legislative Assembly ruled
for six months until finally put down by the ruler and his tribal
backers. The assembly, however, came to be viewed as Kuwait's first
prodemocracy movement. Its popularity gave the idea of formal
representation a place in Kuwaiti popular history.

Ahmad al Jabir was succeeded by his cousin Abd Allah as Salim Al
Sabah (1950-65), who oversaw the distribution of now substantial oil
revenues, the consequent emergence of a large bureaucratic state, and
the transformation of Kuwait into a wealthy oil-producing shaykhdom. In
terms of internal developments, Abd Allah as Salim made two
transformative political decisions. The first was to distribute these
new revenues broadly throughout the population, primarily through
wide-ranging social services, notably education and health care. The
second was to introduce a greater degree of political participation to
Kuwait in the form of the newly elected National Assembly. This body
held its first elections in 1963. Abd Allah as Salim also oversaw
Kuwait's transformation into a formally independent state on June 19,
1961, when he and British representatives signed new letters of
friendship to replace the treaty of 1899.

When Abd Allah as Salim died in 1965, he was succeeded by his brother
Sabah as Salim Al Sabah--a somewhat unusual choice in that he, like Abd
Allah as Salim, came from the Salim line rather than the Jabir line of
the family, breaking the alternation between the two sides of the family
that had existed since the rule of Mubarak's sons Jabir and Salim.
Nonetheless, Sabah as Salim's rule proved to be largely a continuation
and consolidation of policies set in place by Abd Allah as Salim. When
Sabah as Salim died in December 1977, he was succeeded by Shaykh Jabir
al Ahmad al Jabir Al Sabah, a succession that returned the former
pattern of alternation between the lines of Jabir and Salim.

The influence of external events has dominated Jabir al Ahmad's rule.
The first was the Iran-Iraq War, which rapidly increased the level of
political violence in this historically relatively peaceful shaykhdom.
Major events included the 1983 bombing of the United States embassy and,
probably most notable, the dramatic public assassination attempt on the
amir in 1985. The tension associated with the war also exacerbated
divisions within Kuwaiti society, notably that between Sunnis and Shia,
and prompted the amir increasingly to limit public participation in
political life. Although in 1980 Shaykh Jabir al Ahmad restored the
National Assembly (which Sabah as Salim had abolished in 1976), the
increasing political tension prompted him to do away with it again in
1986 and to introduce new measures curtailing civil and political
rights. These measures prompted a wide range of opposition
leaders--including old parliamentarians, Islamists (sometimes seen as
fundamentalists), and merchants--to form the Constitutional Movement of
1989-90, a prodemocracy movement calling for the restoration of the
National Assembly.

The second external event was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August
1990, which, for the first time in Kuwait's history, placed the state
under direct foreign rule. Although sovereignty was restored in February
1991, events leading up to the invasion and the amir's behavior during
and after the occupation prompted open grumbling about the ruling family
itself. The criticism centered on the amir and the fact that most of the
ruling family spent the time of the Iraqi occupation in comfortable
exile abroad and delayed their return to the country after the war
ended.

In 1993 Shaykh Jabir al Ahmad still ruled Kuwait; his designated
successor, Prime Minister Saad al Abd Allah as Salim Al Sabah, also came
from the Al Sabah ruling family. Although the Al Sabah remained
paramount, the family as a ruling institution had changed dramatically
since it assumed its leading role in the mid-eighteenth century. First,
succession patterns within the family had changed. In the nineteenth
century, rule passed regularly from father to son. With the accession of
Mubarak in the late nineteenth century, a new pattern was established
that excluded all but Mubarak's line from the top position. This custom
is formalized in the Kuwaiti constitution and in practice created a new
pattern of alternation of rulers between the two lines of Mubarak's
sons, Jabir and Salim. It was in keeping with this pattern that Shaykh
Jabir al Ahmad (from the Jabir line) named as his crown prince and heir
apparent Saad al Abd Allah as Salim, from the Salim line.

The relationship between the ruling family and Kuwaiti society also
changed in more subtle ways. Members of the family other than the ruler,
once first among equals in a society where merchants and other elites
played an important role in decision making, became in the years after
oil was discovered far wealthier because their wealth was guaranteed by
a civil list--a list of sums appropriated to pay the expenses of a ruler
and his household. Ruling family members also became socially more
prominent and politically more important as they took over many of the
state's highest posts. In part, this transformation occurred as a result
of the emergence of a large state bureaucracy and the need Kuwaiti
rulers felt to fill the state's highest posts with loyal supporters,
notably kin.